Showing papers by "Texas Christian University published in 1976"

Semiempirical analysis of electron-induced K -shell ionization

Abstract: We report the results of an analysis of the available experimental data on electron-induced K-shell ionization which show that the data can be described by the Bethe theory of ionization corrected for relativistic energies by a classical correction. This analysis, which extends over five orders of magnitude in the ratio of bombarding energy to ionization potential, appears to be superior to the available theoretical treatments, and suggests where further work would be useful. (AIP)

A unified correlation of substituent effects with carbon, proton and fluorine chemical shifts in aromatic and olefinic systems

Abstract: At the present time no completely satisfactory quantum mechanical calculations exist for carbon, proton or fluorine chemical shifts in various substituted aromatic or olefinic systems. However, the chemical shifts in such systems have been shown to be well correlated by a linear multiple regression analysis with the Swain and Lupton field and resonance para meters ℱ and ℛ, and the semiempirical parameter Q. The utility of Q in testing substituent stereochemistry has been exemplified previously. Here the applications of the complete regression analysis to a wide variety of different systems for the three nuclei are given. The correlation is also shown to apply to selenium in substituted selenophenes. The 13C chemical shifts for a series of ortho substituted toluenes are presented and comparisons made with other ortho disubstituted benzenes.

A national follow-up study to evaluate the effectiveness of drug abuse treatment: a report on cohort 1 of the DARP five years later.

Abstract: Preliminary findings for the first cohort of a national follow-up study of drug users admitted to treatment in the Drug Abuse Reporting Program (DARP) during 1969–1971 are reported. From a sample of 1,853 selected for follow-up, 87% were located and interviews were completed for 77%. Gross tabulations are shown comparing several outcome measures based on pre-DARP treatment, the posttreatment period, and for the 2 months before interview. Sixty-one percent of all patients returned to treatment at some time after DARP termination. Decreases in drug use, expecially of opioids, were substantial and were generally accompanied by improvements in other outcome measures as well. Plans for more detailed and informative analysis of these and related DARP data are addressed.The work upon which this publication is based was performed under Contract H81 DA 01598–02S1 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Department of Health, Education

Response Rate to Mail Questionnaires with a Return Deadline

Abstract: A RECENT review of research on stimulating response to mail questionnaires reported that "none of the studies experimentally tested the effect ... of including a deadline with the mail questionnaires" (Linsky, 1975:96). To date, as indicated by a search of the literature published subsequent to this review, the impact of a deadline has yet to be established experimentally. The present study attempts to fill this hiatus.

Some developments in multivariate generalizability

Abstract: This article is concerned with estimation of components of maximum generalizability in multifacet experimental designs involving multiple dependent measures. Within a Type II multivariate analysis of variance framework, components of maximum generalizability are defined as those composites of the dependent measures that maximize universe score variance for persons relative to observed score variance. The coefficient of maximum generalizability, expressed as a function of variance component matrices, is shown to equal the squared canonical correlation between true and observed scores. Emphasis is placed on estimation of variance component matrices, on the distinction between generalizability- and decision-studies, and on extension to multifacet designs involving crossed and nested facets. An example of a two-facet partially nested design is provided.

The 13C NMR spectra of nine ortho-substituted phenols

Abstract: The 13C chemical shifts of nine ortho-substituted phenols have been determined in cyclohexane and in dimethyl sulfoxide. All data were acquired in duplicate upon c.w. and FT instrumentation and both sets of data are presented. The chemical shifts at carbons 1, 2 and 3 are correlated with the parameter Q. Q has been defined as P/Ir3 where P is the polarizability of the adjacent CX bond, I is the first ionization potential of the elements F, Cl, Br, I and H, and r is the CX bond length. Experimental values of Q are available for other substituents. The field and resonance parameters of Swain and Lupton may be combined with Q to form a three part multiple regression correlation which is more exact than that with Q alone and which applies to all carbons in the aromatic ring. The results of this study suggest that only one value of the Q parameter is needed to characterize the behavior of the nitro group in these solvent systems. This conclusion is contrasted with earlier results of the effect of substituents on proton chemical shifts in these systems.

Effects of Feedback in a Forced‐Choice GSR Detection Task

Abstract: Previous studies of the detection of internal events have failed to assess adequately the effects of external feedback on detection and identification of internal events. The purpose of the present study was to make use of a signal detection paradigm in an evaluation of feedback effects on the detection and identification of galvanic skin responses (GSRs). GSR detection was measured by the absolute difference between the areas above and below the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and reflected the extent to which subjects were able to differentiate between GSR and no-GSR trials. GSR identification was measured by the area below the ROC curve and reflected the labeling strategy (accurate or reversed) chosen by the subjects. It was found that external feedback as to the presence or absence and relative magnitude of GSRs was not necessary for differentiation of GSR and no-GSR trials, and that such feedback was detrimental to increased differentiation over sessions. External feedback may, however, have been useful in directing the attachment of identifying responses to the differentiated internal events. The similarity of these findings to findings reported in the schematic concept formation (SCF) literature was discussed. It was concluded that internal event detection tasks such as that used in the present study may be seen as examples of SCF involving internal stimulus events.

Demographic characteristics of groups classified by patterns of multiple drug abuse: a 1969-1971 sample.

Abstract: Patient characteristics are described in relation to pretreatment usage combinations of eight classes of illicit drugs for 11,380 drug abusers admitted between 1969 and 1971 to drug treatment centers participating in the NIDA-TCU Drug Abuse Reporting Program. From these data, nine basic patterns of drug use were defined. The most frequent, involving the daily use of heroin or other opioids only, characterized 27% of the patients. Four patterns involving heroin (at least weekly) with various combinations of cocaine, barbiturates, and marijuana accounted for another 29%, two patterns of polydrug use (three or more nonopioid drugs, with and without opioids daily) included 16%, and the remaining 28% of the patients were represented by patterns of a less specific nature. The distribution of patients across drug-use patterns was unrelated to sex, but was associated with race-ethnic background and age.

Pretreatment Drug Use by Patients Entering Drug Treatment Programs during 1971–1973

Abstract: Patterns of pretreatment drug abuse are described for 28,419 drug users who entered community-based treatment centers that participated in the national Drug Abuse Reporting Program during 1971–1973...

Interpersonal communications anxiety

Abstract: (1976). Interpersonal communications anxiety. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 15, Interpersonal Relations, pp. 368-372.

Rapid puffing as a treatment component of a community smoking program.

Abstract: Twenty-six persons participated in a community smoking program, which required a $40 contribution to the sponsoring health organization and a $25 refundable deposit. Clients were assigned to one of two treatment groups; one involved group discussion and rapid puffing, and the other involved group discussion only. The number of cigarettes smoked before treatment and one week, two months, and five months after treatment were determined for each client. Smoking decreased substantially following treatment in both groups and did not differ significantly between the groups across the follow-up periods. Females, however, showed significantly greater relapse in smoking following treatment than did males. Overall, approximately 15% of the clients in each group were abstinent five months after treatment.

Improving instructional systems through confidence testing

Abstract: Confidence testing is a probabilistic measurement technique which provides the teacher a mechanism for maximizing information about the student's current state of knowledge by examining the degree of confidence he has in his answers. The student's estimate of his level of knowledge provides valuable diagnostic information for assessing the effectiveness of instruction. This report outlines four operational levels of a student's knowledge ranging from true knowledge to pure chance. The confidence testing formats described permit students to select and weight test items making both the student and the teacher active participants in the testing process.

Specificity of finger pulse volume feedback during relaxation.

Abstract: The effect of biofeedback during brief periods of relaxation was examined. Two groups (10 subjects in each group) were asked to relax as completely as possible during a series of six 3-minute relaxation periods in each of two 1-hr sessions. One group received biofeedback based on finger pulse volume (FPV) during the relaxation trials, while the other group received no biofeedback. Measures of heart rate, respiration rate, skin conductance level, and FPV were recorded during the sessions, and subjective ratings concerning relaxation were obtained after each session. The results showed that FPV scores for the groups differed during the relaxation trials of the second session, but other measures failed to distinguish between the groups. The group that received FPV feedback revealed a significantly higher level of FPV (relative to baseline) than the group that received no feedback.

Attitudes of Southern Women: Selected Group Comparisons

Abstract: Questionnaire data from 100 white women in a Southern city were examined to learn whether women belonging to groups that focus on social change or business and professional concerns were less traditional in their attitudes and behavior patterns than women who affiliate with groups that share common religious beliefs or similar socioeconomic status and whose stated purpose has a social orientation. Women belonging to the first category of groups were more likely than the other women to combine employment with marriage and children, to have help from husbands with household duties, and to support the Equal Rights Amendment.

On using cis-Pt (II)-uracil as a stain for nucleic acids in brain slices and subcellular fractions.

Abstract: Chick brain cortical slices and crude mitochondrial fractions were fixed with glutaraldehyde, stained only with cis-Pt (II)-uracil and processed for electron microscopy. The optimal time of staining was determined to be 10 min. Results show that this platinum-pyrimidine complex is a relatively specific stain for the nucleic acids of brain slices. However, staining of crude mitochondrial fractions apparently resulted in some protein staining and other artifacts. The method should be helpful identifying ribosomal contamination of subcellular preparations and if its specificity can be increased it may prove a useful addition to staining methods of the electron microscopist.

The Puritan Religious Dilemma: The Ethical Dimensions of God's Sovereignty

Abstract: Much American writing reflects an almost obsessive concern for exploring the interrelationship betweeen ethical and religious values. This preoccupation first emerges in the writings of the early American Puritans. Their covenant theology, as expressed by John Winthrop, describes a divinely established universal moral order which makes experience and God rationally and ethically comprehensible. However, from 1650 onward, Puritan writings frequently portray a wilderness experience that is no longer explicable in terms of this moral order. To many, the encounter with the wilderness abrogated the close correlation between the ethical and religious which the covenant theology affirms. As a consequence, there emerges in Puritan theological writings a quest for a symbol of God that makes the ethical and religious congruent, if not identical, realms. This preoccupation, although expressed in the idioms of the 1600's and early 1700's, gives Puritan theology a distinctively modern tone, since in many ways it anticipates the religious concerns which Soren Kierkegaard expresses in his notion of the "teleological suspension of the ethical." The Puritan quest in fact gives rise to a debate whether such a notion as God's teleological suspension of the ethical constitutes a valid religious explanation of human experience. The essential outlines of this debate are initially formulated in such writings as the Puritan jeremiads, Urian Oakes' sermon "The Sovereign Efficacy of Divine Providence," and Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Despite these Puritan origins, however, this debate does not terminate with the demise of Purtanism. Rather, it is continued in such later writings as J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur's Lettersfrom an American Farmer, Nathaniel William Taylor's sermon RICHARD FORRER is Assistant Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University and has published essays on the interrelationships between religion and literature, which include: "Oedipus at Colonus: A Crisis in the Greek Notion of Deity," Comparative Drama 8 (Winter 1974-75); and "Absalom, Absalom!: Story-Telling as a Mode of Self-Transcendence," to appear in the forthcoming Winter issue of The Southern Literary Journal:

Capabilities, Perceptions, and Risks: A Bayesian Model of International Behavior

Abstract: As the ease of computer analysis makes inductive research in international relations more attractive, there is likely to be an increase in the number of competing hypotheses in the literature. Since this can impede the task of theory building, the author suggests the use of a formal model which can provide the flexibility and precision necessary for the manipulation of variables that inductive methods are unable to achieve. To illustrate this, a Bayesian model of decision-making is formulated to reconceptualize a research problem regarding the role of uncertainty in the occurrence of war presented in an article by Singer et al. By introducing the concept of subjective probabilities, the model shows that uncertainty is not only a factor that can affect a nation's choice of an alternative, but that it can also be created and used by a country to mask its true intentions to achieve its goals.

Conflict and Survival in Triads

Abstract: A study of conflictive behavior in a three-person laboratory game provided support for five hypotheses or principles of survival in multipolar power systems: (1) the probability of survival is maximized by having as much or more power than the combination of all potential enemies; (2) if such hegemony is not possible, the probability of survival increases and conflict decreases following a transition from a multipolar to a bipolar power system; (3) disparity of power tends to increase conflict and reduce survival probabilities; (4) if power hegemony does not exist, survival is inversely related to power; and (5) aggressive (as opposed to pacific) behavior is positively related to survival. In addition, the conflict process was found to be a function of both structural and motivational factors.

DIFFERENTIAL LABELING OF JUVENILES A Multivariate Analysis

Abstract: Prior studies and commonsense definitions of the decision-making process suggest that the ascriptive power of the commitment offense, gravity of the commitment offense, psychiatric characteristics of the offender, and the social identity given off by the offender's family would be causally related to variance in the deviance label, i.e., decisions to commit to a mental hospital rather than to a corrections institution. Case records from both settings were analyzed for traces of the decision. However, controlling for each of the alternative variables fails to eliminate the strong relationship between intensity of the offender's prior career of delinquent behavior and the formal deviance label qua type of commitment. The multivariate path model suggests that delinquency intensity and type of commitment are the two most important determinants of mental classification.

Group dynamics--a point of view. People, interaction, and change.

Abstract: Group dynamics is analyzed both as a science and as an art. Three major elements--people, their interaction, and the change emanating from that interaction--are discussed. People come together as a group with basic needs, such as the need to feel important. Ideally, they will feel some cooperative sense of unity; inevitably, they will interact. Passive, verbal, or restless--as the case may be--they will influence one another toward a positive or a negative goal. For a successful, total group experience, good leadership is essential, with planning to insure a climate of discovery, properly budgeted time, and realistic goals, with allowances for limitations. Group participants help each other learn, and spectators become doers who achieve goals. Guidelines, techniques, and recommended reading accompany the article.

Community leaders' attitudes toward family planning.

Abstract: This study concentrates on the differences in family planning attitudes among 1200 ministers lawyers businessmen and physicians resident in Texas. The survey was conducted with questionnaires to evaluate the attitudes held by the 4 different groups on such subjects as sterilization overpopulation induced abortion and individual responsibility for contraception so that the local family planning clinics would have some guidelines to interact with local community leaders. The study of attitudes led to at least 3 conclusions: 1) although all groups were in favor of some form of family size limitation it was apparent that attempts to introduce government control of family size would not be supported; 2) overpopulation was seen as an economic problem so that all the groups surveyed believed that poor people should limit family size while rich people were not under the same limitations; 3) there appeared to be a consensus that there is a need for education about human reproduction and population problems. Although the findings of this study are important they need to be validated by large cross-national samples.